(Literary Portraits)

Tolstoy, Leo.  Autograph quotation (in French) signed ("Leon Tolstoy"), inscribed below a pen-and-ink portrait of the author by Robert Kastor signed ("R. Kastor"), approx. 11 x 9 in.; 278 x 228 mm), n.p. (Paris?), 29 December 1902.  Matted, framed and glazed (not examined out of frame). 

Tolstoy inscribes his portrait, "Le but de notre existence n'est pas en elle même.  Il est au delà.

"Notre vie est une mission dont nous pouvons connaître les devoirs mais point le but."

("The purpose of our existence is not existence itself.  It is more than that.

"Our life is a mission of which we can know the obligations but hardly the purpose.")